Responsible AI and Technology for Safer Online Spaces for Women

Supervisors: Professor Miriam Fernandez, Professor Arosha Bandara, Dr Min Zhang,

Ángel Pavon-Perez

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is inviting applications to join our PhD programme beginning October 2025.

Project description

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly central role in shaping online environments, influencing how individuals interact, engage, and experience digital spaces. While AI has brought numerous benefits to online platforms, its application also raises critical ethical concerns—particularly regarding the experiences and safety of women. AI-driven systems, from content moderation algorithms to recommendation engines, can inadvertently perpetuate biases, and in some cases, even facilitate or overlook harmful behaviours. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, encountering heightened risks of harassment, cyberstalking, intimate image abuse, and other forms of gendered violence, with implications that frequently transcend online interactions and impact their offline lives.

Given these pressing issues, this PhD project will investigate the design and development of AI technologies used within online environments from a Responsible Innovation and Responsible AI perspective, focusing specifically on their impact on women and girls. The research aims to scrutinise the design, development, deployment, and outcomes of current AI systems, analysing how they contribute to or mitigate gendered risks. The project will also involve identifying and advocating for responsible, inclusive approaches to new AI development that prioritise the safety of women and girls online.

Key research areas

The PhD project will be guided by an intersectional feminist lense, examining the unique vulnerabilities faced by diverse groups of women and girls based on factors such as age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We invite PhD proposals that explore any of the following aspects (though not limited to):

Analysis of existing AI technologies and their gendered impacts: Investigating how AI systems (e.g., content moderation algorithms, recommendation systems, and image recognition tools) may inadvertently exacerbate or overlook gendered violence or harassment, and proposing responsible modifications to mitigate these risks.
Exploring AI's role in detecting and addressing online gendered violence: Studying current methods for identifying harmful behaviours, including the strengths and limitations of AI in detecting harassment, abuse, or explicit content, and identifying where these methods fall short in protecting women.
Exploring AI approaches in preventing online violence against women and girls: Studying to what extent AI-based approaches can prevent the spread or creation of harmful content towards women and girls online (e.g. hate speech or deepfakes)
Intersectional analysis of AI effects on different groups of women: Examining how various dimensions of identity intersect to create unique risks and vulnerabilities for different groups of women, providing insights into how AI can be tailored to address diverse needs and promote safety across demographic boundaries.
Development of co-creative, participatory methodologies for safer AI: Collaborating with women’s advocacy groups, technologists, and affected communities to develop inclusive, user-centred frameworks that inform safer AI practices.
Design of responsible AI technologies for identifying and responding to gendered online harms: exploring the development of explainable and usable artificial intelligence techniques, considering the different user experiences of interacting with these technologies.
Formulation of guidelines for responsible AI in online platforms: Proposing actionable recommendations that ensure AI technologies are designed, tested, and deployed in ways that prevent harm, support women’s digital rights, and create safer online environments.

Candidate requirements

We welcome applicants with a Master’s degree in AI, data science, human-computer interaction, software engineering or related fields, or those with relevant professional experience in technology. Candidates should demonstrate a strong interest in gender studies and responsible technology development as well as the ability to conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research. Familiarity with qualitative and/or quantitative research methods is highly desirable, and experience in feminist or intersectional research is an asset.

Funding

Please note that this opportunity is for a full-time, fully funded PhD studentship (i.e. fees and maintenance) funded through Research England UK and international applicants are eligible to apply.

Centre for Protecting Women Online

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is funded by a £7.7 million grant from Research England. It is a vehicle for understanding and addressing challenges posed to women’s safety online through a novel, interdisciplinary and ambitious research agenda. This is combined with cross-sectoral collaborative outputs and interventions which inform law, policy, technology development and practice to reduce online harms suffered by women and girls. The Centre’s work aims to minimise anti-social behaviours online whilst promoting pro-social behaviours and help build tech/software that helps ensure accountability, credibility and facilitate justice. The Centre is led by Professor Olga Jurasz and the work of the Centre is delivered in five interwoven Work Streams: Law & Policy, Human Behaviour, The Future of Responsible Tech, Ethical and Responsible Tech/AI and Policing. The successful candidate will be based at the Centre for Protecting Women Online at the Open University and supervised by academic staff from the Human Behaviour Stream.

Supervisors

Miriam Fernandez is a Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at The Open University. Her research agenda revolves around advancing Responsible AI, ensuring that technological innovation aligns with ethical principles and societal values. Her work spans diverse domains, from algorithmic transparency and fairness to the societal implications of AI deployment. By integrating cutting-edge AI techniques with a human-centred approach, she fosters solutions that prioritise social responsibility, transparency, and inclusivity. With a portfolio of more than 100 scientific articles and having won numerous external grants supporting her research, Professor Fernandez has significantly influenced the discourse in the field of Responsible AI. Professor Fernandez leads the Ethical and Responsible Tech/AI stream of the OU’s Centre for Protecting Women Online, is a member of the OU’s Centre for Policing Research, and is also an Equality and Diversity Champion for the OU.

Arosha Bandara is a Professor of Software Engineering at The Open University whose research and teaching focuses on software engineering for adaptive systems. He has a particular interest in techniques for building secure, adaptive, and usable software systems. He has led research on adaptive systems as a PI and Co-I on multiple projects funded by the EPSRC, ERC, and Qatar National Research Foundation, working in application domains including healthcare and policing. He leads the Responsible Software Engineering stream of the OU’s Centre for Protecting Women Online, is a member of the steering group for the OU’s Centre for Policing Research

Min Zhang is a Lecturer in Responsible Software Engineering at the Centre for Protecting Women Online. She is interested in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and using human-centric approaches (qualitative and quantitative methods) to understand the problem space and user requirements and feed these to the design, development, and evaluation of socially responsible technology. She has worked with multi-disciplinary research teams on HCI4D, digital civics, policing, personal safety, and positive computing.

Ángel Pavon-Perez is a Research Associate in Responsible AI at the Centre for Protecting Women Online. He has a background in studying radicalised online communities, particularly within the manosphere. His research also focuses on identifying and addressing bias in AI systems within financial services, with an emphasis on how these systems may unintentionally disadvantage minoritised groups. Committed to using technology for social good, Ángel is dedicated to using responsible AI to protect minoritised communities.

If your application is successful, you will join the Faculty of Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM), where the Responsible AI/Tech and The Future Responsible Tech Streams of the Centre for Protecting Women Online are based. You will work with subject specialists to develop an original contribution to knowledge as well as your skills in research, communication, engagement and impact.

Full-time PhD students are expected to be available on campus to undertake their research, attend related training or other relevant events and meet supervisors and other members of their academic unit on a regular basis. They are expected to live within easy daily commutable distance of the campus.

Fully-funded studentships cover tuition fees and a stipend (circa £19,237 per annum) for 36 months. A research training support grant is allocated to all students accepted into the programme to cover research-related costs including fieldwork and conferences.

Applicants for the PhD programme should have minimum qualifications of an upper second class honours degree (2:1 or an equivalent) or usually a specialist master in a subject relevant to the intended study with a strong research element.

Your application must include:

a proposal which should be at least 1,000 words and no longer than 2,000 words, indicating your knowledge of the literature, methods and likely approach to your project of interest (guidance on how to write your research proposal is available here)
a covering letter indicating your suitability for the project
a fully completed application form
copies of degree certificates and all transcripts relevant to your application
an IELTS Academic Exam certificate (if applicable). If you are not from, or do not have a full degree certificate from, one of the countries in the tables on page 17 of the application form (international), you will need to submit an IELTS Academic Exam certificate with your application by the deadline. A minimum overall score of 6.5 and a minimum score of 6.0 in each of the four categories (or approved equivalent) are required in order to make the application process fair and equal for all applicants. You should have your level of proficiency certified through a provider approved by UK Visas and Immigration, and provide your certificate and grade with your application. Test certificates must be no older than 2 years (from the date of submission of the application). IELTS is the only proof of English competency we accept at The Open University. There are no exceptions or waivers to having an IELTS exam certificate. This is regardless of other qualifications, career experience, other academic experience or English-medium education that took place in countries not on the aforementioned list.

Your proposal, covering letter, fully-completed application form, and copies of certificates and transcripts including IELTS certificate should be emailed to protecting-women-online@open.ac.uk by the closing date and time.

The deadline to submit your application for project ‘Responsible AI and Technology for Safer Online Spaces for Women’ (for entry in October 2025) is 3 February 2025 at 09:00 (GMT).

Interviews will form part of the selection process and will be held either in person or remotely via videoconference. Applicants are expected to give a 10 minute presentation about their proposal, followed by a question and answer session lasting up to 45 minutes.

Please ensure to thoroughly check your application before submission as incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please send queries about this opportunity to protecting-women-online@open.ac.uk